Census Data Made Easy

Finding government information can be challenging, even for those of us practiced in the task. Uncovering government data in a form that is easily usable can be evenmore difficult, graying the hair of many a social scientist.

One of the reasons that I find this service particularly useful, is that users can not only download the data for a specified geographic region but also the shapefile, allowing them to visualize this data using tools such as the ggplot2 package in R or GIS software.

As disciplines expand the way they use government data and begin to incorporate advanced analysis and visualization into their fields, it will become increasingly important for librarians to be familiar with resources like census.ire.org.